BEST IELTS General Reading Test 456

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IELTS GENERAL READING TEST 456 – PASSAGE – 3

IELTS GENERAL READING TEST – 456

READING PASSAGE – 3

WHY DO CLOCKS GO CLOCKWISE?

The simple answer is that clocks always go clockwise! If the clock’s hands moved in the opposite direction (to what we are used to), it would still be called ‘clockwise’, of course! But, seriously, why do the hands move from left to right at the top? Generally, the answer given is that clocks were invented in the northern hemisphere where the sun rises in the east, travels round to the south, and sets to the west. The shadow on a typical domestic sundial in olden times would move from left to right. So, the answer is completely logical. Or is it?

If we go back to early clocks, because of their sheer size and cost, there was generally only one turret clock in a town, usually placed high on a tower for all to see and frequently accompanied by a bell that could be heard when the clock face was not visible. If we go back in time to before mechanical clocks, even if people had a sundial at home, they needed a large public sundial that could be read from a distance when they were out. Sundials were therefore placed high on a wall in the town.

IELTS General Reading Test

This is where the explanation above about clockwise movement no longer rings true: for sundials on vertical walls have to have their hours arranged in an anti-clockwise progression. As vertical sundials would have been the predecessors of clock towers, one wonders why a right to left movement didn’t become the standard. An old vertical sundial can still be seen in Queen’s College, Cambridge, England. Not only does it go ‘anticlockwise’ but strangely (for us) the number ‘I’ is at the bottom rather than the top.

Surely the hands on clocks have always moved in the same direction, though? Surprisingly, the answer is no. There is a clock painted in fresco in a Cathedral in Florence that is peculiar in several ways. We are used to clocks with twelve hours on the dial but this one has twenty-four and the twenty-fourth hour does not signify midnight but the hour of sunset (a system that survived until the eighteenth century apparently); furthermore, the layout of the numbers has ‘I’ at the bottom, although of course XII is at the top, and it goes anticlockwise! This clock is not unique, however.

IELTS General Reading Test

There were other clocks around in the 15^th and 16^th centuries with Roman numerals going anti-clockwise. Some of them had a hand that went around once in 24 hours, others went around once every twelve hours, and still others went around four times in 24 hours with the digits I to VI painted on the clock face. Then again, some went around once in 12 hours but the digits were marked I to VI and then I to VI again.

Some of the ‘once every 24 hours’ ones were marked I to XII and I to XII again. There were probably even more variations than this. To find out why all clocks go clockwise and are numbered I to XII (or 1 to 12) today, we have to consider the phenomenon described in 1890 in Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall.

Early clocks were massive and extremely heavy (not to mention very expensive) devices and technology over the centuries has reduced these to small timepieces that can sit on a little shelf, be carried (often in a waistcoat pocket), or worn on the wrist. When it comes to new technologies, there are often many designs in competition with one another. Occasionally, one design is obviously pre-eminent and the others soon become obsolete.

IELTS General Reading Test

In the case of the clocks, there would not seem to be one design that is outstandingly more advantageous than the others. That is where Marshall’s theory comes in; ‘whatever firm [design or technology] gets a good start’ eventually wins. We can assume, therefore, that one type of clock face — although it may not have had any technological advantage over the others — was somewhat more common; and, once one technology secures a larger share of the market, there are economies of scale. It becomes more cost-efficient to produce thereby giving it even greater advantage over its rivals. In this way, one technology can completely eclipse the others.

Why do clocks go clockwise? Pure chance is probably the answer. Clockwise may have been more widespread and got off to a good start. After the invention of the first mechanical clock, for a century and a half, there was no consistency in the direction, the position of the numbers on the dial, or even the number of hours shown. All this changed with the mass production of clocks and watches as domestic items. For nearly five hundred years now, they have been consistent — a clockwise dial with twelve hours and two rotations in a 24-hour period.

IELTS General Reading Test

Questions 29-34

Do the following statements agree with the information given in the text?

In boxes 29-34 on your answer sheet, write:

TRUE – if the statement agrees with the information

FALSE – if the statement contradicts the information

NOT GIVEN – if there is no information on this

29. ‘Clockwise’ has always described the left-to-right movement of a clock’s hands.

30. The shadow on a domestic sundial in the southern hemisphere moves from right to left.

31. Before the invention of mechanical clocks, people used sundials to tell the time.

32. The shadow on a vertical sundial moves in a different direction from the domestic equivalent.

33. The sundial at Queen’s College and the clock in the Florentine Cathedral move in the same direction.

34. On the old 24-hour clocks, number XII (12) stood for midday and XXIV (24) denoted midnight.

IELTS General Reading Test

Questions 35-40

Complete the summary below using words from the box below.

Improvement in technology has seen clocks develop from large, 35……………. mechanisms to very small gadgets. When new technologies arise, designs compete with one another. Sometimes, because one design is so 36………., it will replace all the others. However, it is not always the best design that wins. There is a theory that asserts the most 37……….. design wins even if it has no obvious advantage over the others. Once this design starts being 38…………, its position in the market is 39…………… That is why there seems to be no 40…………… explanation for some of the accepted designs that are commonplace today.

IELTS General Reading Test